World Heavyweight Championship

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The World Heavyweight Championship, informally known as "The Big Gold Belt", is one of the top-level championships in World Wrestling Entertainment, exclusive to the SmackDown! brand.

Contents

History

It is not disputed that the current World Heavyweight Championship has its design inspired by the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and the WCW World Heavyweight Championship but rather whether the championship is considered to be in the lineage of the two. Unlike the WWE United States Championship or the WWE Cruiserweight Championship, which were WCW belts that were quietly reintroduced as WWE belts, the WCW World Heavyweight Championship (then known simply as the "World Championship") was merged with the WWE Championship, forming the WWE Undisputed Championship. For a time, holders of the Undisputed Championship carried both the WWE and WCW belts, although it was effectively one championship as the two belts were always defended together. The two belts were replaced by one belt on April 1, 2002, when Ric Flair (then Co-Owner of WWE) presented then-champion Triple H with a new belt. During the brand extension, the Undisputed Championship, which, along with the WWE Women's Championship, was to be defended on both shows, then took on a new meaning - not as the champions of both WWE and WCW, but rather representing the championship of Raw and Smackdown!. On September 2, 2002, Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff introduced the World Heavyweight Championship as a response to Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar effectively becoming exclusive to the Smackdown! brand after refusing to battle against Raw's top contender. Thereafter, as there were two top championship belts, the undisputed nature of the Undisputed Championship came into dispute, and thus the Undisputed Championship returned to its former name as the WWE Championship.

RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff then declared that since Lesnar had left for SmackDown!, that RAW needed its own champion. The World Heavyweight Championship was given to Triple H by Bischoff, stating that he was the "last man to wear the belt", referring to Triple H having held the Undisputed title while it was represented by two belts. Whether Bischoff had retracted the WCW Championship from the Undisputed Championship, or whether he introduced a new championship and having it represented by the WCW Championship belt (ie. only the belt and not the title was revived) is a matter of debate among wrestling fans, and the WWE's position on the matter has changed over the years from the former to the latter. So with that, he opened a briefcase and pulled out the old WCW Championship and gave it to Triple H, naming him the first World Heavyweight Champion. The general consensus is that the current World Heavyweight Championship initially claimed legitimacy as the successor to the NWA and WCW belts, but the subtle point has been dropped after the belt gained a reputation of its own. In particular, when Chris Benoit had won the belt at Wrestlemania XX, announcers Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler stated that he had won the belt for the first time, despite the fact that Benoit had won the WCW Championship before (in fact, Benoit left WCW while he was champion). To date, only Goldberg and Benoit have won both the WCW Championships and World Heavyweight Championships.

Following the formation of the World Heavyweight Championship and a separate set of tag-team belts for Smackdown!, the two sets of tag-team belts were renamed to mirror those of the top belts: hence the former WWE Tag-Team Championship became the World Tag-Team Championship, while the newer belts had the older name. When the two top belts switched shows, neither belt was renamed. With the top belts being show-exclusive, the WWE Women's Championship was quietly made into a Raw-exclusive belt. To date, there has been no plans to create a so-called "World Women's Championship" on SmackDown! or a "World Cruiserweight Championship" for Raw cruiserweights.

The World Heavyweight Championship was initially considered to be the lesser of the two championship belts, but was eventually regarded as the greater of the two when, in the "major" pay-per-view events, the World Heavyweight Championship title match would often be billed later on the card than the WWE Championship match. However, in 2005, as part of the draft, the two top belts effectively switched shows, with WWE Champion John Cena, moving to Raw as the first pick in the draft and World Heavyweight Champion Batista moving to Smackdown! being the last pick in the draft. In the four-week interim period between the first and last draft picks, Raw had both of the top belts while Smackdown! had neither, prompting Smackdown! General Manager Theodore Long to attempt to introduce a third top belt (presumably called the "WWE SmackDown! Championship"), only for it to be deemed unnecessary when Batista was introduced to Smackdown!, much to the shock of the third belt's supposed initial champion, John Bradshaw Layfield. Thus, the story behind the World Heavyweight Championship in its first run on Smackdown! was to see who was the true champion of Smackdown!, a storyline that culminated in victory for Batista.

Whether the World Heavyweight Championship will retain its status as the greater of the two belts or whether the WWE Championship will reclaim that title due to its spot on the "A-show" (Raw) as opposed to the "B-show" (SmackDown!) remains to be seen.

Lineage controversy

While WWE announcers occasionally make allusions to the belt's lineage dating back as far as 1904, a reference to the original World Championship originally held by George Hackenschmidt, as well as segments detailing the history linking that timeframe as well as the WCW lineage to the title during episodes of WWE Confidential, the majority of evidence suggests that the belt does not derive its lineage beyond its debut on September 2, 2002, and instead is simply using the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt to represent the new title. In particular, former WCW Champions -- even those such as Kurt Angle who had won them during the Invasion storyline -- were, with the exception of Goldberg and Benoit, never recognized as having held the current World Heavyweight Championship belt. Another example is how Booker T often claimed himself as a "five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time, five-time WCW Champion", and never once claimed that, during his failed title run in 2003 that he was going to become a six-time WCW Champion.

Perhaps most telling of how the World Heavyweight Championship is considered a new belt (and perhaps subtly that the WCW championship was not a major championship in the post-Brand Extension WWE) was on the May 19, 2003 edition of Raw, when Stone Cold Steve Austin gave Triple H the choice to defend the title against any former "world champion" on the roster and specifically named all of Raw's former WWE champions -- Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Kane, Kevin Nash, and Ric Flair (whom he would ultimately choose) -- but not Booker T, Scott Steiner, or Goldberg, all of whom were former WCW Champions but had never won a world title in WWE.

It is to be noted, however, legends such as Ric Flair have their major wrestling title totals, including the WCW championship, amalgamated - thus he is considered to be a sixteen-time world champion despite the fact that he had never held the World Heavyweight Championship (although he was a six-time WCW champion and two-time WWE champion).

Despite the WWE's change on its position, some fans still claim that the NWA and WCW Championships have carried on in the World Heavyweight Championship, citing the restoration of the WWE United States Championship and the WWE Cruiserweight Championship as examples. In the case of the former, it was reintroduced as a WWE belt while retaining its NWA and WCW heritage despite having it absorbed into the WWE Intercontinental Championship (and ultimately, the World Heavyweight Championship) and a subsequent two-year absence. The latter was briefly united with the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship and then de-unified again and was redubbed as a WWF title -- the WWF's official cruiserweight title -- after the Light Heavyweight Championship was quietly retired.

Some fans also claim that the WWE's view on title histories (and thus lineage) may be susceptible to revisionism: this view was held to justify how The Fabulous Moolah had held the WWE Women's Championship for over 30 years or how the WWE does not recognize the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship's lineage history before it was awarded Taka Michinoku, despite the fact that it had been defended as part of the J-Crown before Michinoku had won it. Interestingly, the WWE's profile of Chris Benoit seems to support this, changing the text that mentioned him winning the WCW Championship from Sid Vicious to having won the World Heavyweight Championship from Vicious shortly after winning his "first" World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestlemania XX. This supposed bias on the part of WWE, however, is also used in defense of the view that the WCW Championship being not considered to be a major championship (save for cases such as Flair above), only reaching "major status" as the World Heavyweight Championship, as the WWE notes the WCW championships of different wrestlers on an inconsistent basis, mentioning it for some champions (such as Chris Jericho) but not for others (such as Kurt Angle).

Terminology confusion

Part of the controversy can be explained away by the fact that WWE often uses "world heavyweight championship" as a generic term (as opposed to the specific "World Heavyweight Championship" title in particular) to refer to any championship reign of either the Raw or SmackDown! belts, including reigns that are not necessarily "World Heavyweight Championship" reigns. In the aforementioned May 19 2003 edition of Raw, when the World Heavyweight Championship was held by Triple H, then co-General Manager "Stone Cold" Steve Austin demanded that he defend the belt against a former world heavyweight championship and listed Shawn Michaels, Kane, Chris Jericho, and Kevin Nash as Triple H's options for opponents. Of the four, only Shawn Michaels had held the "World Heavyweight Championship" in its current form; Chris Jericho was a former WCW Champion who had held the belt after it was renamed the "World Championship" but prior to its September 2 2002 reintroduction; Kevin Nash had been a former WWF and WCW Champion but had never held the belt in its current form; and Kane was a former WWE Champion but had never held any version of the "big gold belt." Given the fact that Kane was included in Austin's list, the generic term "world heavyweight champion" must be seen to include WWF/E Championship reigns as well. On the other hand, given that notable former WCW Champions like Booker T, Scott Steiner, and Goldberg, all of whom were on the Raw roster at the time, were explicitly not listed, it would seem that the term "world heavyweight championship" does not include former WCW Champions unless they won a WWE belt. Given WWE's dismissive attitude towards any wrestling concept that it did not originate itself, it is not surprising to see that WWE does not recognize the WCW Championship as a "world heavyweight championship."

The lone exception to this rule is Ric Flair, who is touted as a sixteen-time world champion. He has only won two WWF Championships; the remainder of his WWE-recognized world championship reigns are NWA titles (8) and WCW titles (6). Flair, however, has a special place in the legacy of professional wrestling, and WWE wants to tout his numerous world titles to acknowledge this. It is noteworthy that no other WWE wrestler has any pre-unification WCW Championship reigns recognized as a "world championship" (prior to Wrestlemania 21, for example, Kurt Angle was touted as a "former WCW Champion and a four-time WWE Champion," not a "five-time world champion") and no mention has ever been made of former WCW Champions, such as Goldberg or Chris Benoit, winning the title "again" when they won the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE.

History and trivia

The following pertains specifically to the history of the belt since its WWE reintroduction in 2002, since its lineage prior to that is in dispute.

  • The oldest champion was Batista at the age of 39.
  • The youngest champion is Randy Orton at 24.
  • The longest reign was by Triple H at 9 months.
  • The shortest reigns were by Shawn Michaels and Randy Orton, each of whom held the belt for 28 days.
  • Bill Goldberg won the WCW title and WWE's World Heavyweight Championship, which was considered the top title during his time on WWE's RAW. Of course, wrestling "logic" could suggest that the World Heavyweight title was really the de-unified WCW title, so Goldberg may have won the same title twice.
  • The WWE has in fact modified the original NWA/WCW Title belt for it to become the RAW World Championship Belt, including a new WWE trademark logo at the top of the belt (previously not there) and shaping the plate face of the belt to be slightly curved. (The WWE logo was actually added several months after the title's induction.)
  • Prior to June 2005, the World Heavyweight Championship had served as RAW's premier title. In the 2005 WWE Draft Lottery, however, after WWE champion John Cena was drafted to RAW from SmackDown! on June 6, putting both top titles temporarily on the same show. Batista was drafted to SmackDown! from RAW on June 30.
  • When RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff made the comment about Triple H being the last man to wear the World Heavyweight Championship belt, he may have been referring to the physical title belt itself and not the wrestling championship.
  • Triple H has held this incarnation of the belt the most times, with five championship reigns to his credit.

Current champion

The current World Heavyweight Champion is Batista, who is in his first reign. He defeated Triple H in the main event of WrestleMania 21 to win the title. Before his trade to SmackDown!, Batista defended in two rematches against Triple H, including a match at WWE Backlash 2005 and a Hell in a Cell match at WWE Vengeance 2005.

See also

External Links


(WWE) World Heavyweight Champions
Triple H | Michaels | Triple H | Goldberg | Triple H | Benoit | Orton | Triple H | - | Triple H | Batista

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